The expense and complexity of modern military and civilian aircraft has lead to an increase in the utilization of sophisticated training devices, such as flight simulators. Such devices typically employ simulation cockpits similar to those found on actual aircraft. Most flight simulators use a display terminal to render electronic images that anticipate expected flight conditions for a given flight plan or set of flying conditions. The simulation cockpit may also utilize hydraulic actuators to simulate movement of the aircraft.
The instrumentation typically used in such flight simulator devices in the past has been implemented utilizing actual instrumentation. Modern avionics instruments, however, are quite expensive and the utilization of such instruments within a training session can be prohibitively costly.
One factor that directly impacts the cost of using flight simulators is the time spent by the student or pilot in the simulation cockpit. Flight training takes time away from a pilot's commercial air time impacting the airline's bottom line. Additionally, the flight training requirements imposed on pilots and the limited availability of flight simulation equipment means that equipment must be shared. Furthermore, long training sessions limit the number of pilots that can use the equipment over a given period of time and effect the efficiency of the training session.
With typical flight simulators, the student is required to load a flight plan prior to the training session. This usually involves entering origin to destination data, weather conditions data, cargo and gross weight data and other cruising conditions data into the automated navigational device of the simulation cockpit. The manual entry of this flight information inside the simulation cockpit takes a considerable period of time and increases the overall length of the training session.
Thus, a need exists for a way to reduce the time a training student or pilot consumes in the simulation cockpit. The present invention is a device and method that eliminates the need for manual entry of flight plan data inside the simulator and, thus, conserves valuable simulation training time.